This topic exists to cover issues surrounding vaccinations.

Laurel

Dr Glenville says: ‘It makes sense to look at the ways in which our exposure to all types of oestrogen — the hormone our own bodies produce and oestrogenic chemicals we come into contact with — has changed over the years.’

‘Girls today reach puberty earlier than ever before, and are going on to have fewer ­children and breastfeeding for less time. As a result, we have far more periods than our ancestors… In addition, today’s young women were born to the first ­generation of women on the contraceptive Pill. Early versions of the Pill contained far higher dosages of synthetic ­oestrogen than they do today, and little is known about the long-term impact of this increased hormone exposure on future generations. So, could the ­changing shape of our breasts indicate an increased sensitivity to oestrogen? Dr Glenville says: ‘Pregnancy and breastfeeding have a ­protective effect against breast cancer…” ....

But it’s not just women on the Pill or HRT whose ­oestrogen levels, and cup-size, might have increased as a result.

In 2002, research published by the Environment Agency showed that an ‘exquisitely potent’ form of oestrogen — which is believed to have entered the rivers through the urine of Pill and HRT-users — was responsible for changing the sex of half of all the male fish in British lowland rivers, and could be contaminating the water supply. Now, it has been suggested that the influence of these xenoestrogens (literally ‘foreign ­oestrogens’) could be responsible for the rapid decline in male sperm count and fertility.

‘We can’t assume these ­pollutants have no effect on us,’ says Dr Glenville. ‘There are many questions still to be answered, but if xenoestrogens are potentially responsible for declining male fertility, they are potentially affecting women, too — and the proof could be in our bras.’

So how do we avoid these surplus hormones? The answer is, we can’t. And it may come as a surprise to know that they are found in everyday items. ‘Pesticides, plastics and ­cosmetics are my main concerns,’ warns Dr Glenville. For instance, a xenoestrogen called Bisphenol A (or BPA) is widely used in the ­manufacture of tinned food, drinks cans, plastic bottles, glass jars, ­electronic equipment and till receipts — to name but a few items…

While it is primarily targeted towards the young, male or female, this FREE fitness program is certain to help folks get in shape for whatever’s coming down the pike.

Laurel

Dr. Julian Nicholas told an audience of imaging specialists that he and other FDA staffers “were pressured to change their scientific opinion,” by managers in the agency’s medical device division.

What has made this sort of control possible is the advent of electronic medical records (EMR). With most EMR systems it is possible to data mine and extract patient non-compliance/compliance and monitor physician adherence to best-practice protocols for many conditions and preventative measures. For example, it is possible for these systems to monitor what percentage of a physician’s patients are getting colonoscopies, flu vaccines, mammograms, etc. and with the percentage comes a list of compliant and non-compliant individuals. It is with these lists that non-compliant individuals are beginning to be hounded on a never-ending basis to comply or else. This is because physicians fear economic and even possible professional retribution from state medical boards and the government if their numbers aren’t high enough.

We ain’t there yet, but this could be down the road a piece.

Laurel

Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner.

Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia this year, soaring virtually unchecked.

The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs.

He recognizes his country is “unique in the world and best in the world” when it comes to MRSA. Less than 1 percent of health care providers are positive carriers of MRSA staph.

Bingo! Norwegians make #1 in a field again.

Laurel

In 2001, the USDA concluded that if breastfeeding rates were increased to 75 percent at birth and 50 percent at six months, it would lead to a national government savings of a minimum of $3.6 billion. This amount was easily an underestimation since it represents savings in the treatment of only three of the dozens of illnesses proven to be decreased by breastfeeding: ear infections, gastroenteritis, and necrotizing enterocolitis.

Well-documented article, worth a read.

Laurel

In their Daily Health News email newsletter, an article recently stated that, in a study comparing the sperm quality and diets of 30 men who came in to a clinic for infertility treatment and 31 men who had no sperm quality issues, the men who had an antioxidant-rich diet (read: lots of fruits and vegies, whole grains, they specify low-fait dairy and less meat/protein) had better quality sperm, while those with poor quality sperm had fewer fruits and veggies in their diets.

I know the nourishing traditions style diet emphasizes full fat dairy and eating/making soup of meats/bones, so I was curious about that particular issue.

Here’s an excerpt from the article that intrigued me.

...less meat and full-fat dairy products. When I contacted Dr. Mendiola, he told me that one problem with the latter diet, rich in full-fat dairy and meat products, might be related to xenoestrogens (endocrine disruptors) that result from the growth-enhancers the animals are fed. If not combatted by a diet filled with antioxidants, these could negatively affect semen quality.

So really it’s not the fat in the diet, but the xenoestrogens/growth enhancers fed to the animals that are perhaps part of the problem here.

If there ever was a call to eat all-naturally fed meats, whatever you want to call the animals’ diet (grass-fed, free-range, etc. etc.), this is it.

What was even more disturbing to me was the following:

There has been concern about poor semen quality throughout Europe in the last 50 or so years. For instance, it is estimated that 40% of the young men in Denmark have semen quality that is below levels for optimal fertility. Dr. Mendiola speculates that this may be related to environmental or occupational pollutants, changes in lifestyle, exposure to toxins and dietary habits. His team is now planning a randomized controlled trial to corroborate how having a healthier diet would improve quality of semen.

Perhaps the much touted low reproduction rate in “developed” countries is not so much related to a desire for fewer children, but the diets of the parents preventing conception?

Wow. I am amazed, and concerned. How does one reverse this trend, other than our personal choices as to what we eat?

Laurel

Interesting that he doesn’t use liver pate - ah leaving out might be a good decision :p

The biggest cause of infertility now is sexually transmitted diseases brought on by promiscuity. Chlamydia is the most common and is asymptomatic whilst it destroys the pelvic organs and blocks the fallopian tubes. It also diminishes male fertility and some of the statistics on the links below show massive rises in its incidence.

Here are some UK statistics which show a huge increase over the last decade and here are U.S. figures. Here is some information about the infection. Ectopic pregnancy is one of the major complications of STDs – PID.

Sexual promiscuity is a massive cause of infertility and preventable if people were to abstain from sex until marriage but this message is never advised by experts… The sexual revolution was truly a disaster for women and men and the whole of Western society. Never in the history of the West have sexually transmitted diseases been so rife or so destructive. Never have so many people attended infertility clinics and embarked on various fertility treatments. This is the real disaster and this really has to be addressed.

Infertility is defined clinically as a failure to conceive after 12 months. It has been proven that STDs are the greatest cause of infertility. All the data collected on the aetiology of infertility by the OB/GYN hospitals and academic departments has demonstrated that beyond any doubt and it is also the major cause of the rise in the incidence of infertility over the last few decades. Maternal age is not hugely important from an Obstetric point of view until the late thirties. There is no significant difference in the management of pregnancy and labour between a woman of 24 and 34. You can get reasonable success rates in IVF until age 40 in an otherwise healthy woman. But if there is any old PID and significant pelvic adhesions or tubal damage it is a hopeless case for any woman even a 20 year old. That is the problem that hospitals are now seeing. There are loads of young women with destroyed pelvic organs. They will never conceive. They fill the gynaecological surgical lists in most hospitals for diagnostic laparoscopies and tubal surgery and it is getting worse. There is little that can be done for them. Infertility has been a major growth area for Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the last few decades and IVF is a booming business. The vast majority of IVF patients are women with tubal damage and most of them are in their 20s and 30s. No-one is giving the message to the public that sexually promiscuity is destroying the fertility of the West as it has done in Russia. Abortion is another factor in causing PID.1